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Can you put a dollar sign on greatness? With David Ortiz, the Boston Red Sox have to do just that

David Ortiz

Boston Red Sox's David Ortiz hits a grand slam home run in the eighth inning during Game 2 of the American League baseball championship series against the Detroit Tigers Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013, in Boston. The Red Sox won 6-5. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
(Associated Press)

A little over one year ago, Ortiz was a free agent. He could have played anywhere, he ended up back Boston after signing a two-year, $26 million contract that was seen as somewhat risky given Ortiz's injury-plagued 2012.

One year later, the word "bargain," leaps to mind.

Ortiz's 2013 season mirrored his team's. He was everything that his teammates, fans and baseball observers could have reasonably expected, and then some.

Ortiz has one year remaining on his two year deal. He's 38 years old, and he's a full-time designated hitter. He's also a New England Sports legend, who's coming off a fantastic regular season in which he hit .309 with 30 home runs, 103 RBIs and an OPS of .959. His postseason was even better.

Ortiz hit a bundle of home runs, none more important than his game-tying, eighth inning grand slam in Game 2 of the ALCS against the Detroit Tigers. In the World Series, Ortiz was nearly impossible to get out. He hit .688 with two home runs, six RBIs and an OPS of 1.948.

Ortiz's advanced age should make one think that at some point he's bound to slow down. It happens to everyone. Then again, Ortiz doesn't play the field, over the past few seasons he's slimmed down, and appears to be committed to not just excelling on the field, but working hard off of it.

Unless Ortiz has asked for a massive four or five year contract extension, there's almost no way to see how he doesn't deserve some form of extension.

Yes, at some point in the not too distant future his production will start to drop off. Given what he did in 2013, and the fact that he was coming off a fairly significant injury, Ortiz feels like a fairly safe bet to have a solid 2014 season.

What he does after that is anyone's guess, but if you're the Red Sox, you don't want Ortiz having another amazing 2014, and then entering free agency perturbed that the Red Sox wouldn't offer him an extension this winter.

Ortiz's exact demands are not yet known, but if they merely include adding one more year, at a high annual salary to his already existing contract, then the Red Sox would be wise to pounce on it.

Baseball is a business, but there are still some rare times when an individual player's value goes beyond that of individual statistics.

Ortiz's individual stats are actually very impressive, but his place in Red Sox history, his ability to come through when his team most desperately needs him to, his ability to inspire not just his teammates with mid-game dugout pep-talks, but a whole region with a pre-game speech, all add up to something that is difficult to place a monetary value on.

Fans always gripe about how today's sports aren't what they used to be. About how the athletes aren't part of the community or about how everything is tainted by money.

If one were to line-up lists of positives and negatives of David Ortiz's 11 seasons in a Red Sox uniform, you'd find a much longer list of positives. The list would have things on it that very few professional athletes could claim to have, like three World Series rings, an endless list of dramatic hits and home runs and a larger than life personality that gives generously to the community around him.

No team wants to waste money, and no fan likes seeing a well-paid player perform poorly while earning tens of millions of dollars that could have been better spent elsewhere.

That being said, if the results of another contract extension for Ortiz end up with him making around $15 million in his final season while performing well below his career numbers, that's a trade-off that all Red Sox fans should be able to live with.

Red Sox fans have lived through plenty of bad contracts, but up until the arrival of David Ortiz the vast majority of them had never lived through a World Series title run. Now most of us have lived through three of them, and Ortiz deserves a large degree of credit for that.